Archive for Humanity's Stupidity

Warmonger Wins Peace Prize

{ October 13, 2009 @ 12:30 pm } · { Humanity's Stupidity }
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Warmonger Wins Peace Prize

By Paul Craig Roberts

It took 25 years longer than George Orwell thought for the slogans of 1984 to become reality.

“War is Peace,” “Freedom is Slavery,” “Ignorance is Strength.”

I would add, “Lie is Truth.”

The Nobel Committee has awarded the 2009 Peace Prize to President Obama, the person who started a new war in Pakistan, upped the war in Afghanistan, and continues to threaten Iran with attack unless Iran does what the US government demands and relinquishes its rights as a signatory to the non-proliferation treaty.

The Nobel committee chairman, Thorbjoern Jagland said, “Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future.”

Obama, the committee gushed, has created “a new climate in international politics.”

Tell that to the 2 million displaced Pakistanis and the unknown numbers of dead ones that Obama has racked up in his few months in office.  Tell that to the Afghans where civilian deaths continue to mount as Obama’s “war of necessity” drones on indeterminably.

No Bush policy has changed. Iraq is still occupied. The Guantanamo torture prison is still functioning. Rendition and assassinations are still occurring. Spying on Americans without warrants is still the order of the day.  Civil liberties are continuing to be violated in the name of Oceania’s “war on terror.”

Apparently, the Nobel committee is suffering from the delusion that, being a minority, Obama is going to put a stop to Western hegemony over darker-skinned peoples.

The non-cynical can say that the Nobel committee is seizing on Obama’s rhetoric to lock him into the pursuit of peace instead of war.  We can all hope that it works.  But the more likely result is that the award has made “War is Peace” the reality.

Obama has done nothing to hold the criminal Bush regime to account, and the Obama administration has bribed and threatened the Palestinian Authority to go along with the US/Israeli plan to deep-six the UN’s Goldstone Report on Israeli war crimes committed during Israel’s inhuman military attack on the defenseless civilian population in the Gaza Ghetto.

The US Ministry of Truth is delivering the Obama administration’s propaganda that Iran only notified the IAEA of its “secret” new nuclear facility because Iran discovered that US intelligence had discovered the “secret” facility.  This propaganda is designed to undercut the fact of Iran’s compliance with the Safeguards Agreement and to continue the momentum for a military attack on Iran.

The Nobel committee has placed all its hopes on a bit of skin color.

“War is Peace” is now the position of the formerly antiwar organization, Code Pink.

Code Pink has decided that women’s rights are worth a war in Afghanistan.

When justifications for war become almost endless—oil, hegemony, women’s rights, democracy, revenge for 9/11, denying bases to al Qaeda and protecting against terrorists—war becomes the path to peace.

The Nobel committee has bestowed the prestige of its Peace Prize on Newspeak and Doublethink.

http://www.vdare.com/roberts/091009_warmonger.htm

Salon Hit Piece Implies Truth Seeking Is A Mental Illness

{ October 12, 2009 @ 5:35 pm } · { Humanity's Stupidity }
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http://www.infowars.net/articles/october2009/121009Salon.htm

An advice columnist for the influential left leaning website Salon.com has launched a scathing attack on Alex Jones in response to a letter from a reader who says his 17 year old nephew has been “sucked into the Internet conspiracy black hole” created by Jones.

Salon’s Cary Tennis refers to Jones as a “cultish fear-monger” and advises the reader named “Buck” that his nephew’s visits to Jones’ websites may be an indication that he is mentally disturbed.

Tennis initially reels off the usual psychobabble about people wanting to find simple explanations for complex things, needing to feel like there is a vast conspiracy to get them, and wanting to feel like they are privy to exclusive information that the masses are not aware of.

YAWN.

Towards the end of his response, however, he makes the following remarks:

I do not want to conclude without making explicit that if he has dyslexia or some kind of attention-deficit disorder, those are things that should be diagnosed and treated on their own. If his mother’s coddling has prevented him from facing up to these possible problems, that could be adding to his anxiety. So I would definitely, in addition to the camping trip, or wilderness expedition, do what you can to bring to light any organic, diagnosable and treatable conditions he may have. Treating them will not only improve his abilities but give him some confidence that obstacles can be overcome and differences in ability can be compensated for.

Labeling as mentally disturbed anyone who is skeptical or open to the possibility that conspiracies may have a basis in reality is a move we have witnessed before.

Last month Psychology Today published a piece with the exact same implications. Writer John Gartner made Alex Jones the centerpiece of a story in which he attempted to define distrust of authorities and alternative explanations for the “official story” put out by governments and their corporate media arms as mental illness.

In our previous article we pointed out that there is a long history of those very forms of authority designating dissenting explanation as a psychological illness as a means to stamp it out along with all forms of critical thinking.

Salon’s Cary Tennis got the gig as the website’s “agony uncle” advice columnist, by his own admission, mainly due to a troubled past. He occasionally makes reference to the fact that he is a recovering alcoholic and that these challenges in his own life have led him to find a connection with others who are in trouble.

I could respond by reeling off a parade of pseudo-psychological clap trap about Tennis wanting to believe other people are troubled because it exorcises his own demons blah blah blah, but instead I will just state that Tennis’ attempt to play at being Sigmund Freud is tired and weak.

Free thinking people are flocking to Alex Jones’ websites not because they are “looking for a system that explains why things are fucked up”, but because they have been consistently lied to by a cabal calling itself government operating through both political parties. They are distressed that elites continue to wage wars in their names, continue to hand over the fruits of their labor to offshore banks and corporations, and continue to destroy their freedoms and lower their standard of living.

Hacks like Tennis appear ludicrous when they accuse those free thinkers of being out of touch with their own world when the reality of the situation is the exact opposite.

Pick up a newspaper Mr Tennis, look around you. Who is engaging in mental gymnastics? Is it Alex Jones, who is gravely concerned about an engineered decline of society, or is it you with your accusations that he and his readers may be clinically insane for suggesting such a thing even exists?

With consideration, however, it is my guess is that Tennis is not engaging in any kind of cognitive dissonance, but that he is just plain lazy. My guess is that Tennis spent less than five minutes evaluating Alex Jones, his standpoint and the material he has produced over the course of the last fifteen years, before tapping away a standard hack response at his keyboard.

The mentally unstable conspiracy theorist in me has another suggestion, however. Indulge me if you will.

The reader letter from “Buck” stinks to high heaven.

The now standard attempt to link Alex Jones with Fox News provocateur Glenn Beck rears its ugly head again, despite the fact that Alex Jones has clearly outlined his opposition to Beck’s agenda on several occasions.

The letter also compares the 17 year old nephew to “young men in 1930s Germany… when told that they were part of a master race being manipulated by the international Jewish conspiracy”, thus ridiculously and callously implying that Alex Jones is akin to Hitler.

In what seems to be a pre-determined anticipation of our response to the attack piece, the letter also carefully points out that the young impressionable mind of the teenager interprets any any criticism of Jones as “a product of the nefarious dark forces out to discredit the only man intelligent enough and courageous enough to tell the truth.”

Call me a paranoid conspiracy theorist, but the letter has all the hallmarks of a carefully concocted smear piece.

Salon Media Group’s board of Directors reads like a who’s who of corporate media executives. The publication also routinely carries columns by globalist philanthropist George Soros, who is always intrinsically linked with routine attacks on Alex Jones directed from the left.

Outlets such as Salon, Media Matters, The Daily Kos and Think Progress have begun attacking Alex Jones precisely because they see his truly individual status, ultimate bipartisanship and real grassroots popularity as a threat to their misconceived “new media” empire.

If “Buck” is a real person he really has done his homework in following the Soros directed attack program to a tee in his letter.

Of course, all that is in my attention-deficit disorder riddled mind. Perhaps I need to take Mr Tennis’ advice and get out into the wilderness some more.

***

Addendum: I cannot let slip one more rather cheap shot from the Salon piece which comes in the form of criticizing Alex Jones based on advertisements on his websites. Tennis derides our acceptance of “comic book” style ads for “Powerful Herbal Medicines”, while directly opposite his comments, and plastered all over his article for that matter, are a comic book like ads for “The antioxidant superpower” of 100% natural pomegranate juice, instantly rendering his point hypocritical in addition to it’s permanent irrelevance.

Here is a screen shot:

Conservative group aims to delete ‘liberal bias’ from Bible

{ October 6, 2009 @ 3:27 pm } · { Humanity's Stupidity }
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*The idiocy never ends…*

“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

That famous line, attributed to Jesus in Luke 23:34, could well apply to the folks at Conservapedia — the “conservative version” of Wikipedia — who have embarked on a project to rewrite the Bible.

In an effort to rid the Good Book of “liberal bias,” the group has set up the Conservative Bible Project, which aims to rewrite the Bible from a modern, conservative perspective.

“Liberal bias has become the single biggest distortion in modern Bible translations,” the project’s Web site asserts.

And the line quoted above is one of the group’s targets for deletion in a truly “conservative” Bible. The “forgive them father” quote “is a favorite of liberals but should not appear in a conservative Bible,” Conservapedia states.

And evidently many of Jesus’ other teachings — from the “turn the other cheek” lesson, to his disdain for profiteering — will also no longer be acceptable in the conservative Bible.

“Socialistic terminology permeates English translations of the Bible, without justification,” the Web site states — a strange assertion, given that English versions of the Bible date back at least to the 16th century, while socialism as a concept was formed in the 18th century.

To combat the Bible’s “socialism,” the Conservative Bible Project wants to see Biblical use of the words “comrade,” “labor” and “fellow” (as in “fellow worker”) reduced.

Not surprisingly, the project has come under ridicule and derision from some corners.

“Jesus was obviously misquoted all over the place,” blogger P.Z. Myers writes sarcastically. “So what to do? When your claim of godly authority rests on your interpretation of God’s holy word, but God’s holy words contradict your desired ends, you’re in a bit of a pickle. There is a solution, though: rewrite the Bible and change the liberal bits!”

“The insane hubris of this really staggers the mind,” writes Rod Dreher at Beliefnet. “These right-wing ideologues know better than the early church councils that canonized Scripture? They really think it’s wise to force the word of God to conform to a 21st-century American idea of what constitutes conservatism? These jokers don’t worship God. They worship ideology.”

http://rawstory.com/2009/10/conservapedia-rewrite-bible/

Babylon’s Ancient Wonder, Lying in Ruins

{ July 29, 2009 @ 5:48 pm } · { Humanity's Stupidity }
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*Got this from whatreallyhappened. Think about it. If you do not want mankind to know its roots, what are you going to do?? I weep for these antiquities, for this is what I was most interested in. My heart breaks.*

One of the great crimes committed against the people of Iraq was the looting of the Baghdad Museum and the destruction of many important ancient sites inside Iraq.

I think that destruction of ancient sites is deliberate policy.

Egypt is literally littered with the ruins of the ancient temples and palaces of her rulers. As much as has been found, it is estimated that only 1/3 of Egypt’s archeological wonders have been uncovered. A newly discovered temple was uncovered while digging a sewer line, and a cache of finely preserved mummies was literally stumbled over by a cow in a pasture.

Iraq’s ancient heritage was enshrined in its ancient sites and museum. As a result of the war, many of those sites have been damaged or destroyed. Part of the ancient city or Ur now lies underneath a US air base runway. Nebuchadnezzar’s palace now lies underneath a US-built parking lot. The treasures of the museum have only partly been recovered. The treasures from the looted archaeological sites have been scattered to the world.

All of this wealth of archaeological treasures must of course annoy Israel. We are raised from birth with Old Testament tales of the greatness of the ancient Israelites, of the powerful kingdoms of Solomon and David and the first temple. Yet Israel, while rich in antiquities, is almost totally devoid of artifacts from this supposedly glorious time in her history. The existence of the fabled First Temple was supported with just two artifacts, a carved staff ornament in the shape of a pomegranate and the Jehoash tablet. Both of these artifacts have been exposed as frauds. We are told that once there was a magnificent temple on that hill, but it “all went away.”

The wonders emerging from the soil of Egypt, Iraq, and Iran serve as a constant reminder that ancient buildings of such a scale as we are told the First Temple was simply do not vanish without a trace.
There is considerable reason to suspect that the tales told in the Old Testament are just that; tales. The Bible is not science, it is the collected stories of a primitive tribal people telling each other how important they are. And like fishermen talking about the one that got away, or Ramses with his temple carvings of the did-not-really-happen victory over the Hittites at Kadesh, the writers of the ancient testaments assumed that the people they were telling stories to had no way to verify the claims for themselves. So “embellishment” was a low-risk activity.

We do know from the available archaeological evidence that the Exodus probably actually happened to the Hyksos, not the Israelites. We know that the story of Moses is suspect because no Egyptian princess would hide a Hebrew child inside Pharaoh’s household, then give the kid a Hebrew name (“Moses” is actually an Egyptian title meaning “Prince” and is included in the names of many Pharaoh’s names such as Tut-Moses, Ah-Moses, Ra-Moses (Ramses) etc.)
Likewise, the story of Masada may be less than accurate. The remains found on the mountain were buried with pig bones, something no proper Jewish funeral would tolerate, which suggests that the bodies found and venerated as heroes of ancient Judea were actually those of dead Romans, for whom burial often involved animals as gifts to the spirit of the dead.

But a good story is a good story and the writers of the ancient texts were probably not thinking much further into the future than the guys who pen the “Celebrity dates space alien” stories you see at supermarket checkout lines. The fact that the celebrity is a real person does not prove the space alien exists. It’s just a story.
Given enough time, even a simple story written in jest can take on a life of its own. Scientology began as a bet between two science fiction writers; look how wide spread that has become in just a short time.

But, over time, entire religions with attendant wealth and power structures have been built on the premise that these old testament stories really happened exactly as written. And today, here in the 21st century world, science has started to catch up with these ancient legends and call many of them into doubt.

So, for a nation that justifies its existence on the writings of the Torah, the plethora of sites and artifacts confirming the ancient histories of Egypt, Iraq, Iran, etc. etc. etc. must seem a dire political threat for a nation whose own ancient history seems to have left little if any traces at all.

In that context, the strange behavior of the US military which posted guards around the Iraq oil ministry while bulldozing Iraq’s archaeological sites starts to make sense, if the supporters of a very insecure nation decide that leveling the archaeological playing field is preferable to allowing the obvious disparity in artifacts to remain visible to the world.

http://whatreallyhappened.com/

Justice Dept. Investigates Arizona Sheriff for Enforcing Immigration Law

{ March 12, 2009 @ 2:33 pm } · { Humanity's Stupidity, Immigration/Mexicans, Police state }
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*How dare someone enforce a law!!*

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched an investigation of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in Arizona following requests by congressional Democrats and allegations by liberal activists that the department has violated the civil rights of illegal aliens.

Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.), Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), and Robert Scott (D-Va.) requested the investigation, and activists groups such as National Day Laborer Organizer Network and ACORN launched petition drives and rallies in support of the probe.

The investigation focuses on Sheriff Joe Arpaio and dozens of officers under his command who were trained through the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Agreements of Cooperation in Communities to Enhance Safety and Security (ACCESS), which partners federal and local law enforcement to enforce immigration laws. (The Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement division is known popularly as ICE.)

In a letter dated March 10, 2009, Loretta Smith, acting assistant attorney general at the DOJ, detailed what her department would be investigating:

“This is to inform you that the United States Department of Justice is commencing an investigation of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (”MCSO”) pursuant to the pattern or practice provisions of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994,42 U.S.C. §14141 (“Section 14141″) and the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968,42 U.S.C. § 3789d (“Safe Streets Act”), and pursuant to the prohibitions against national origin discrimination in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,42 U.S.C. §§ 2000d to 2000d-7 (“Title Yr’) and the Safe Streets Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3789d(c).”

The letter continues:  ”The investigation will focus on alleged patterns or practices of discriminatory police practices and unconstitutional searches and seizures conducted by the MCSO, and on allegations of national origin discrimination, including failure to provide meaningful access to MCSO services for limited English proficient (LEP) individuals.”

“In conducting the investigation, we will seek to determine whether there are violations of the above laws by the MCSO,” the letter says.

Sheriff Arpaio’s efforts to enforce immigration laws have been the focus of previous criticism, but Arpaio has defended his department and the results his ICE-trained officers have netted.

Concerning the DOJ’s investigation, Arpaio told CNSNews.com:  “I will not back down. What I am doing is upholding the laws of the state of Arizona, and I will not be persuaded to turn my back on my oath of office as sheriff of this county.”

In an August 2008 press release, Arpaio’s office detailed those results.

“While the Sheriff’s illegal immigration and human smuggling operations conducted on the streets and roadways here have netted nearly 2,300 arrests, another very successful effort to locate illegal aliens has been quietly happening inside Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jails,” the release said.

It continues: “Despite the growing criticism of the Sheriff’s illegal immigration fight by some valley politicians and activists, Sheriff Arpaio says 60 detention officers trained by ICE officials have conducted over 106,000 interviews and investigations of inmates booked into jail since April of 2007.

“In those 18 months, 16,000 inmates were determined to be illegal aliens. Either they have already been deported or will be deported after being tried and/or serving their sentences for crimes committed in the valley. The work being done be Arpaio’s detention staff is a likely contributor to the recent reduction in crime in the valley,” the press release added.

“That number of 16,000 represents a full one-third (1/3) of all inmates in the United States who have had holds placed on them after being identified by jail or prison officials as illegal aliens.”

The press release goes on to say that 20 percent of inmates in the Maricopa County Jail are illegal aliens and that of those, 2,000 illegal aliens – 70 percent – were arrested for felony crimes.

Those felony crimes committed included the following: forgery, 12 percent; kidnapping, 10 percent; aggravated assault, 7 percent; driving under the influence, 7 percent; drug charges, 27 percent; robbery, 3 percent; murder, 3 percent; and theft, 4 percent.

The Democratic Congress members have also asked Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to launch an investigation into the training provided by ICE.

http://cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=44899

Obama beats out Jesus as America’s hero

{ February 19, 2009 @ 7:15 pm } · { Humanity's Stupidity }
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*Errr…I really will not comment on this one.*

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Americans named President Obama as their No. 1 hero, followed by Jesus Christ and Martin Luther King, in a new Harris poll.

Others in the top 10, in descending order, were Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Abraham Lincoln, John McCain, John F. Kennedy, Chesley Sullenberger and Mother Teresa.

People were asked whom they admired enough to call their heroes. Those surveyed were not shown a list of people to choose from. The Harris Poll was conducted online among a sample of 2,634 U.S. adults by Harris Interactive.

This question was first asked in a Harris Poll in 2001. In that survey Jesus Christ was the hero mentioned most often, followed by Martin Luther King, Colin Powell, John F. Kennedy and Mother Teresa.

The biggest changes upwards on this list into the top 10 since 2001, apart from Barack Obama, were:

— George W. Bush was rated only 19th in July 2001, when he had been president for six months, and is now number 5 on the list.

— John McCain, who was not in the top 20 in 2001, is now number 7.

— Chesley Sullenberger, the pilot who landed his jet safely in the Hudson River, is ranked number 9.

Heroes who were in the top 10 in 2001 who have fallen sharply this year include:

— Colin Powell, who was number 3 and is now number 16.

— John Wayne, who was number 8 and has dropped out of the top 20.

— Michael Jordan, who was number 9 and is no longer in the top 20.

— Mother Teresa, who was number 5 and is now number 10.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/1440284,w-obama-jesus-christ-hero-harris-poll021909.article

Octuplet’s mom on food stamps, publicist says

{ February 10, 2009 @ 12:49 am } · { Humanity's Stupidity }
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*I have not really commented on this thus far…now, I must say, WTF??? The clinic needs to be closed down, this woman needs to be investigated by CFS. There are people right now being persecuted for refusing to allow their children to get vaccinated…and this woman is allowed to breed. COME ON. What is her major malfunction??*

Nadya Suleman, the mother of the octuplets born last month, gets $490 a month in food stamps, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday evening. Three of her first children also get federal supplemental security income because they are disabled, the Times reported.

Suleman’s publicist, Michael Furtney, confirmed the information.

During an interview with Ann Curry on the TODAY show, Suleman denied being on welfare. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of NBC Universal and Microsoft.)

Suleman told NBC News correspondent Ann Curry in an interview that she was not receiving welfare. Furtney said Suleman didn’t consider the food stamps and SSI to be welfare.

“In Nadya’s view, the money that she gets from the food stamp program … and the resources disabilities payments she gets for her three children are not welfare,” he said. “They are part of programs designed to help people with need, and she does not see that as welfare.”

Furtney declined to say what kinds of disabilities the three children have, the Times reported.

During the interview with Curry, Suleman said, “I’m not receiving help from the government. I’m not trying to expect anything from anybody. [I] just wanted to do it on my own. Any resources that someone would really, really want to help us, I will accept, I would embrace.”

Curry told Suleman that many people think she had the octuplets in the hope of making money off her story.

“That’s funny how untrue that is,” Suleman said. “Money? Money is necessary to raise children. But it’s — it’s paper. It is paper. To me, it is superfluous in contrast to the importance of my kids.”

NBC chief medical editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman has estimated the cost of delivering the infants and caring for them until they are healthy enough to leave the hospital at $1.5 million to $3 million.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29110391

16 illegals sue Arizona rancher

{ February 9, 2009 @ 12:28 pm } · { Humanity's Stupidity, Immigration/Mexicans, News, Weird News }
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*TOTAL INSANITY.*

An Arizona man who has waged a 10-year campaign to stop a flood of illegal immigrants from crossing his property is being sued by 16 Mexican nationals who accuse him of conspiring to violate their civil rights when he stopped them at gunpoint on his ranch on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Roger Barnett, 64, began rounding up illegal immigrants in 1998 and turning them over to the U.S. Border Patrol, he said, after they destroyed his property, killed his calves and broke into his home.

His Cross Rail Ranch near Douglas, Ariz., is known by federal and county law enforcement authorities as “the avenue of choice” for immigrants seeking to enter the United States illegally.

Trial continues Monday in the federal lawsuit, which seeks $32 million in actual and punitive damages for civil rights violations, the infliction of emotional distress and other crimes. Also named are Mr. Barnett’s wife, Barbara, his brother, Donald, and Larry Dever, sheriff in Cochise County, Ariz., where the Barnetts live. The civil trial is expected to continue until Friday.

The lawsuit is based on a March 7, 2004, incident in a dry wash on the 22,000-acre ranch, when he approached a group of illegal immigrants while carrying a gun and accompanied by a large dog.

Attorneys for the immigrants – five women and 11 men who were trying to cross illegally into the United States – have accused Mr. Barnett of holding the group captive at gunpoint, threatening to turn his dog loose on them and saying he would shoot anyone who tried to escape.

The immigrants are represented at trial by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), which also charged that Sheriff Dever did nothing to prevent Mr. Barnett from holding their clients at “gunpoint, yelling obscenities at them and kicking one of the women.”

In the lawsuit, MALDEF said Mr. Barnett approached the group as the immigrants moved through his property, and that he was carrying a pistol and threatening them in English and Spanish. At one point, it said, Mr. Barnett’s dog barked at several of the women and he yelled at them in Spanish, “My dog is hungry and he’s hungry for buttocks.”

The lawsuit said he then called his wife and two Border Patrol agents arrived at the site. It also said Mr. Barnett acknowledged that he had turned over 12,000 illegal immigrants to the Border Patrol since 1998.

In March, U.S. District Judge John Roll rejected a motion by Mr. Barnett to have the charges dropped, ruling there was sufficient evidence to allow the matter to be presented to a jury. Mr. Barnett’s attorney, David Hardy, had argued that illegal immigrants did not have the same rights as U.S. citizens.

Mr. Barnett told The Washington Times in a 2002 interview that he began rounding up illegal immigrants after they started to vandalize his property, northeast of Douglas along Arizona Highway 80. He said the immigrants tore up water pumps, killed calves, destroyed fences and gates, stole trucks and broke into his home.

Some of his cattle died from ingesting the plastic bottles left behind by the immigrants, he said, adding that he installed a faucet on an 8,000-gallon water tank so the immigrants would stop damaging the tank to get water.

Mr. Barnett said some of the ranch´s established immigrant trails were littered with trash 10 inches deep, including human waste, used toilet paper, soiled diapers, cigarette packs, clothes, backpacks, empty 1-gallon water bottles, chewing-gum wrappers and aluminum foil – which supposedly is used to pack the drugs the immigrant smugglers give their “clients” to keep them running.

He said he carried a pistol during his searches for the immigrants and had a rifle in his truck “for protection” against immigrant and drug smugglers, who often are armed.

ASSOCIATED PRESS DEFENDANT: Roger Barnett said he had turned over 12,000 illegal immigrants to the Border Patrol since 1998.

A former Cochise County sheriff´s deputy who later was successful in the towing and propane business, Mr. Barnett spent $30,000 on electronic sensors, which he has hidden along established trails on his ranch. He searches the ranch for illegal immigrants in a pickup truck, dressed in a green shirt and camouflage hat, with his handgun and rifle, high-powered binoculars and a walkie-talkie.

His sprawling ranch became an illegal-immigration highway when the Border Patrol diverted its attention to several border towns in an effort to take control of the established ports of entry. That effort moved the illegal immigrants to the remote areas of the border, including the Cross Rail Ranch.

“This is my land. I´m the victim here,” Mr. Barnett said. “When someone´s home and loved ones are in jeopardy and the government seemingly can´t do anything about it, I feel justified in taking matters into my own hands. And I always watch my back.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/09/16-illegals-sue-arizona-rancher/

Autistic child taken from school in handcuffs

{ January 15, 2009 @ 12:39 pm } · { Humanity's Stupidity, News }
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*Hey, how are you guys liking 1984?*

COEUR D’ALENE — A Ponderay mom was left outraged when school officials ordered her autistic 8-year-old daughter handcuffed and taken from the school in a police car.

Outside her Ponderay home, 8-year-old Evelyn Towry, in her pink boots and favorite sweatshirt explains why she’s now suspended from school.

“Because I was trying to leave and they hold me down,” Evelyn said.

Evelyn is a third grader at Kootenai Elementary and has Asperger’s Syndrome, a high functioning form of Autism. On Friday she started to act out.

“She wanted to attend a Christmas party in her cow sweatshirt and they told her she couldn’t that she would have to tuck the tail in and put ears down and she dug her heels in the way she does quite often and said she wouldn’t take it off,” Evelyn’s mom Spring said.

Spring says that when Evelyn tried to leave anyway two teachers restrained her, which is when Evelyn began kicking, pinching and spitting on the teachers.

“Well, I kicked because I was upset they were holding me down and I got thumb bruises on me,” Evelyn said.

School officials then called the police and Evelyn’s mom. When Spring got to school to pick her daughter up police were already escorting Evelyn in handcuffs out of the building and into a police cruiser. Police then took her to a local juvenile detention center where she stayed for an hour, after which she was allowed to go home.

“I was terrified and I was scared and I was hurt and I wanted to throw up. I wanted to take my baby with me,” Spring said.

School officials responded to a request for an interview for this story by e-mail, with the district superintendent saying they followed a specific safety plan for Evelyn which was agreed upon by the district and her mental health provider.

The plan, according to the district, says that “If a student assaults staff it is appropriate to call parents, involved support agencies, and local law enforcement officials if needed. All of the above occurred regarding this unfortunate incident.”

“I never saw the plan, I never signed the plan,” Spring said.

On Tuesday morning the Bonner County prosecutor charged Evelyn with one count of battery.

By Tuesday afternoon the charge was dropped.

“I think it’s absolutely ridiculous. She doesn’t even know what battery is,” Spring said.

Spring Towry and her husband are now pursuing civil action. While they don’t excuse their daughter’s behavior Spring says it didn’t have to go this far.

“I don’t want this to happen to another child or another parent,” she said.

http://www.kxly.com/global/story.asp?s=9669140

16-year-old drops out of school to play Guitar Hero

{ August 19, 2008 @ 11:30 am } · { Humanity's Stupidity }
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Another one for the stupidity archives…

How much gaming is too much? For North Carolina native Blake Peebles, there’s no such thing. Guitar Hero is his title of choice. “I usually play till I can’t anymore,” he says, in this profile from the News & Observer.

In fact, young Mr. Peebles is dropping out of high school… in order to focus on Guitar Hero full time. Peebles hopes to join the small but growing crew of players looking to make gaming a job. Citing his victories in Guitar Hero tournaments, which include “gift certificates, gaming equipment, and chicken sandwiches,” Peebles thinks he has the chops to play competitively and earn actual money in the process. As the story notes, top gamers on the competitive circuit can earn up to $80,000 a year (though $25,000 is more common). Peebles, of course, can count his 52 Chick-fil-A combo meals toward that total.

I was at first inclined to disparage the decision by his parents to let Peebles drop out of school, but it seems a little less ridiculous when you delve into the facts. Peebles hahdn’t been doing well in school and wasn’t liked, and even now he isn’t gaming full time. He has a tutor that provides a private education, and his parents say he’s doing well with the more focused instruction and that their son now even does his homework without complaint. (Presumably he can hit the axe sooner after he’s finished his studies.)

However, I worry that Peebles, who’s just 16, may have a tough road ahead trying to break into competitive gaming. The costs of traveling to tournaments alone can totally outstrip earnings, and the amount of training can be grueling. Sponsorships are often a pipe dream. And then there’s the issue of games going out of date and being replaced by something new. Traditional athletes never have to worry about, say, distance running being upgraded with a new version, but many games can go out of style, fast. In the end, there’s just not much cash there: One gamer, quoted at the end of the linked article, says that in eight years his total earnings are about $25,000 total, and that’s including a national championship in Halo 2.

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/101746

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